The iPhone 3G will have two carriers in Italy, Vodafone Italy and TIM. Both …

Share this story

With just a few days left until the iPhone 3G global launch event, most of the mobile phone operators that will be carrying the device have already announced pricing and rate plan details, but a few carriers have yet to join the party. As a result, iPhone details from the remaining carriers have been coming out of the woodwork over the past few days. One of today's additions was Italy's TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile), which revealed the prices for its five iPhone plans.

TIM's cheapest iPhone plan is €30 per month, but doesn't come with any voice minutes or SMS messages, meaning that the iPhone itself will cost a bit more (either €199 or €269). The "iPhone Starter" plan does come with unlimited WiFi and 1GB of data, though, so it's not a bad deal. The €50 plan gets you 250 minutes and 100 messages (as well as a €10 discount on the device), and the €80 plan with 600 minutes and 200 messages brings the price of the iPhone down ever further, to €149 or €219. For €90 a month, the "iPhone 900" plan comes with 900 minutes and messages, and has corresponding iPhone prices of €99 and €149. Finally, if you want a free 8GB iPhone, you'll need to sign up for the €200 plan, which comes with a whopping 5,000 minutes and 1,500 SMS messages, but still only includes 5GB of data access.

Vodafone Italy is only offering three iPhone 3G plans, but they differ quite a bit from the options offered by TIM. Vodafone's smallest plan costs €59 per month for 400 minutes, 400 SMS messages, and 600MB of data, with the device itself costing either €199 or €269. The €79 plan only comes with 250 minutes and messages to people on other networks, but it includes lots of both to other Vodafone customers, and brings the price of the iPhone down to €99 or €169. Finally, the largest plan is €99 per month and comes with 900 minutes and messages, but still only includes 600MB of data. Even worse, you'll still have to pay for the iPhone itself, which will cost either €49 or €119 depending on which model you choose.

Looking at these plans, it seems like some Italians may have a difficult time choosing an iPhone carrier. The two more expensive Vodafone plans may be attractive to some customers, but the 600MB data limit on even the highest-end plan is just weak, especially for a plan that costs €99 per month.